A little while ago now, my delightful blog partner and I headed to Old Street for an evening of Italian cooking at The Underground Cookery School, thanks to the lovely folks at Quorn.
We were promised an evening of education, good food and a few drinks; they definitely didn’t dissapoint.
I’d never actually made pasta from scratch before so Bryony and I were eager to try this out first. All the stations were prepped for our arrival, but before we got down to business we had to have a few pictures taken of us in our aprons, of course.
I’d always thought pasta making was far too complicated a process for me to try but I was pleasantly surprised at how seemingly easy it was to make from scratch. All you needed was a large, free range egg, good & strong white flour and a little oil. You break the egg into the flour, mix it up until it forms a dough and then you knead, knead, knead.
Once it becomes slightly more formed, you can start to run it through your pasta machine. You have to do this quite a few times for it to fuse together enough to make your chosen style of pasta. For us, it was linguine.
And to ensure it was the right constancy for us to cook, we had to dry our individual portions on a clothes rack. Something I’ve never had to do before.
We left our pasta air drying in one corner and moved on to the next station: cooking with Quorn.
We made two dishes using the meat substitute; a bolognese using their mince and thai curry using their chicken pieces. Aside from replacing the actual meat, there is no difference in creating the same type of meals, there is still so much you can do with flavours and spices to really enhance your dish.
And as no meal is complete without dessert, they also got us to make a light and airy pavlova. Bryony’s inner OCD enjoyed layering it all out evenly before being putting in the oven.
It all got a bit friendly between the chefs at one point, they must really enjoy cooking with Quorn!
Once all the ingredients were ready, we were ushered to the table to try our hand-made creations. For starters we had Quorn mince with linguine. Quite a large portion for a starter but after all out hard work (and quite a few glasses of prosecco) it was very welcome. In short, it was delicious. I am actually already quite a big fan of Quorn, the benefits of living with a vegetarian, so the taste of it in different dishes is something I am quite used to. This was a slightly spicy and herby version of a Bolognese and I could honestly say I would have chosen it over a meat version.
The main was thai ‘chicken’ curry and rice. Again, I have eaten Quorn’s chicken pieces on many occasions so the taste was something I was completely used to. But I think with this dish you could definitely tell you weren’t eating real meat, however the mix of flavours ensured it was still a very palatable dish.
The pavlova finished our meal of nicely. No Quorn in here but perfectly done anyway and a great end to the meal.
If you’re unfamiliar with Quorn as a product and brand, you can find out all about them here on their website http://www.quorn.co.uk.
It can sometimes get a bad rep as it is a man made product; it’s main ingredient is Mycoprotein, a member of the fungi family that is grown by fermentation similar to the process used in the production of bread, yoghurt and beer. Whilst not naturally found, it is still healthy and high in protein, which is essential for everyone, not just people who don’t eat meat.
It was a great night for Bryony and I, and great to meet the Quorn team. I will definitely continue to buy Quorn here and there and I think Bryony saw the benefits of introducing it to her diet, especially when she partakes in her vegan months here and there.
Is Quorn already a part of your diet? Let me know what you think of it in the comments below!
